People who want to help rough sleepers in the city will soon
be able to give money to support a local night shelter using new donation
points that are being set up across Leicester.

BID Leicester and Leicester City Council are working
together to provide the contactless donation points which will be installed in
shops, cafés and public buildings in the city centre and beyond.

The initiative, called Give Leicester, is part of the
Leicester Homelessness Charter. Leicester’s
Homelessness Charter was launched last year and is a growing coalition of
people and organisations, practitioners and supporters alike, working
increasingly closely together to tackle homelessness in the city.

Donations collected over the first six months of the scheme
will go towards the One Roof Winter Night Shelter operated by local charity One
Roof Leicester. The shelter provides additional emergency accommodation and
food during the coldest months of the year.

The Give Leicester donation points are small, contactless
terminals, which will enable people to make a £3 donation simply by tapping
their card.

The first giving points will be accepting donations from
Tuesday 29 October. More locations will follow, with the aim of having 16
giving points in total.

The Give Leicester initiative will also support a website
listing over 75 organisations in the city that
offer support services for homeless people.

The scheme has been organised and funded by BID Leicester
and Leicester City Council, who are also paying all transaction costs to ensure
that 100% of the money donated goes to the One Roof Winter Night Shelter.

Simon Jenner, BID Leicester Director, said, “It’s fantastic
to be able to launch Give Leicester, a project that will use technology and
innovation to help to improve the lives of some of the city’s most vulnerable
people. We know members of the public want to help rough sleepers whenever they
can, and this initiative empowers them to be able to make a difference whilst
being safe in the knowledge that 100% of their money will go to the Winter
Night Shelter – an essential service that helps to get people off the streets
as the temperatures start to drop.

“The extensive online directory will be a real help to local
businesses as well as the public, who can direct people
they are concerned about to the relevant services. Connecting vulnerable people
with outreach services can make a real difference.”

City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: “Like other cities across
the UK, Leicester is facing a growing homelessness crisis. The city council
spends more than £5 million a year on preventing homelessness and getting rough
sleepers off the streets, but there is much more that needs to be done.

“Leicester people are tremendously generous and we know that
they also want to help. The Give Leicester scheme will make it very easy for
them to give money directly to local charities who are working with rough
sleepers and get them the support they need.”

Leicester Homelessness Charter Chair, the Church of England
Diocese of Leicester’s Revd Canon Alison Adams, commented: “I
am delighted that two core Charter members, BID Leicester and Leicester City
Council, have together given the public a really practical way of supporting
initiatives to reduce homelessness. Many people are concerned but unsure about
how to respond. In raising awareness, Give Leicester and the online directory
will begin to address this.”

In addition to money raised by on-street giving points,
local tech business LoyalFree have pledged their support to the campaign.

LoyalFree, who already work in partnership with BID
Leicester in delivering a digital loyalty scheme for the city, have pledged 1p
to Give Leicester for every loyalty stamp collected on the LoyalFree app –
including back-dating their pledge from when the app launched.

LoyalFree currently has 38,000 users across 13 UK locations,
and stamps collected by all users until March 2020 will be counted in their
pledge.

Sophie Hainsworth, co-founder of LoyalFree, said, “We’ve
been looking for a charity partner and as a Leicester-based company we wanted
to help a good cause in the city.

“Users of LoyalFree don’t need to do anything differently –
they can keep using the app as normal and we will automatically Give as they
save.

“By backdating our pledge from when the app launched we
already have £945 to donate to Give Leicester. To those in the city who don’t
yet have the app I’d say: now is the time to download it! Not only can you
benefit from great savings in the city, you can make a real difference to
people’s lives.”

Find out more about the Give Leicester donation points, a directory of services available to people who are homeless and information about the Leicester Homelessness Charter at giveleicester.org

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